The Liberation of Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp
Welcome this new archive relating and dedicated to the men and women service personnel and the part they played at the Liberation and subsequent Humanitarian Effort of the Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp in 1945: The Liberation of Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp. UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who submitted a name/details to coincide with the anniversary of the liberation of Bergen Belsen – we’ll go through all your submissions, moderate and add them on. If you have a photo or any more details please email us. Thank you.
We are now inviting any relatives of service personnel who may have been at the camp to get in touch. Any regiment, service, nationality, volunteer or any snippet of information – we would like to hear from you. We do not believe there are any records of the diverse group of men and women, many completely untrained, who were involved with the camp, after it’s liberation.
There are currently 17 names in this directory beginning with the letter N.
Nankeville, Bill
Unit currently unknown.
George William Nankeville (24 March 1925 – 8 January 2021) was a British middle distance athlete who won the AAA mile title four times in five years between 1948 and 1952.
Nankeville was born on 24 March 1925 to a working class background and his father was a milkman. Nankeville was a natural runner and early on didn't have any coaching but he still raced before joining an athletics club. In 1944, during World War II, he joined the army having made parachute containers and petrol tanks in Woking for three years prior. He served in Brussels, Belgium, Hamburg, Germany and took part in the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
He was also the father of television impressionist Bobby Davro. He died in January 2021 at the age of 95.
Submitted by: Belsen Archive
Natolski, Richard Dr. (Camp 1 Hospital)
A political prisoner at Belsen.
In the very early days Hardman appealed to Colonel Johnston, who allowed him to set up a “first-aid centre” in camp 1, the death camp. With Doctor Natolski and Lieutenant Marian Tatarczuk, who were both Polish political prisoners, and Stephen Green of the British Red Cross, Hardman created the first improvised hospital at Belsen in what had been the SS pharmacy, which contained some medical supplies. Hardman got it cleaned up by SS women, and doctors and nurses among the inmates helped to establish it. There was space for about a dozen beds, with two patients to a bed, so that it accommodated twenty to thirty sick people at a time. Serving in the first four weeks of liberation as a miniature hospital, its staff struggled to save lives, caring for critically ill people until they could be evacuated to the new hospital in the military barracks.
Affidavit of Richard Natolski at Belsen Trial
I am a doctor of medicine and 42 years old. I was arrested on 7th January, 1940, as being a meber of the Polish Partisan Army. I have been in concentration camps ever since and came to Belsen only on 11th April, 1945.
126 Wing RCAF. Left their station at Wunstorf and spent approximately four days assisting at Bergen-Belsen
Submitted by: Belsen Archive
Newby, Harry (RAMC)
My father was in the Army Medical Corps. during World War II, his unit was one of the first in April 1945 to reach Bergen-Belsen, the consentration camp in Lower Saxony northern Germany, were 70,000 Soviet and Political prisoners had died.
Submitted by: Belsen Archive
Newson, George
My Grandfather, Trooper George Newson, helped liberate Belsen as part of the Royal Armourmed Corp
More
LANCE BOMBARDIER
1795509
113th Light Anti Aircraft, DLI
Awarded MILITARY MEDAL
Submitted by: Belsen Archive
Nicklin, Cyril
113th Durham Light Infantry
Submitted by: Nick Price
Nixon, Ernest
6th Guards Tank Brigade.
“He had to bulldoze bodies into a pit using his tank with a large blade attached to the front. I believe my Father had influenza at the time and his duties were turned over to another guardsman.”
At the age of 19, Scott volunteered to serve in the Royal Canadian Air Force for the duration of the Second World War. Following his training at Trenton, Ontario, as a leading aircraftman, he served on the staff of the ground instructing crews at Calgary and Vancouver. He then joined the ground crew of bomber Squadron 415 in England, rising to the rank of Sergeant. In anticipation of the D-Day invasion, he transferred to 143 Wing in order to support fighter air bases in Europe. Scott joined the liberating forces in France on D-Day plus 6, moving on to air bases in Belgium and Holland. He moved on to Germany to join the Allied forces who had just liberated Bergen-Belsen, where he witnessed the horror of the Nazi atrocities and assisted with the rescue of the survivors. He returned to Canada in June of 1945.
Nov 14, 1920 - Sep 07, 2009
EMAIL/CONTACT PLEASE NOTE: Recently we found an important email hidden away as spam. It could have been lost. If you contact us and either do not get a personal reply or a mention/update on this website, please send your email again. Thank you.
This site will progress and I’d encourage anyone with any info to get in touch. My granddad, Reg Price served with the 113th Durham Light Infantry*, as part of 369 Battery. As a signwriter, he produced this sign…
The Sign at the Liberation of Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp
And this was kept in the family for years – so for the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Belsen in 2020, subsequent VE Day and VJ Day, I thought it’s about time I’d try to find out more about Reg – his comrades (many of which are names, simply written on the back of photos), what they did together and for a way to remember them all, properly.
To coinicide with the anniversary, I was able to be filmed both on national and local BBC TV to tell Reg’s Story. Whilst this was totally out of my comfort zone and I dreaded every moment – I decided I needed to do something to start this all off. BBC Midlands Today aired 7th May and a VE Day Antiques Roadshow Special aired Sunday 10th May.
The main photo, shown here was coloured for the 75th Anniversary and we’ll tell you all about it shortly – and what happened next!
*Just 113th Durham Light Infantry? No we are interested in all Service and Medical personnel who took part during the humanitarian effort at Belsen Concentration Camp. Their roles and names are largely forgotten, as many were too horrified to ever speak of what they had to do, so this archive seeks to form a tribute to ALL those that were there, to find out more and to remember them. If you have a relative, or any info, on the relief effort at Belsen, we’d love you to please get in touch. Email us: liberator@belsen.co.uk – Thank you
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The Liberation of Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp
Any 113th Durham Light Infantry friends or family are encouraged to get in touch via 113th@belsen.co.uk
** In 1938 the old 5th Battalion DLI changed its role to Searchlights and then in 1940 to Anti-Aircraft. This 113th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment went to Normandy in June 1944 and joined the advance into Germany in early 1945. Official designation – Brigade: 100 AA • Division: 30 Corps. • Unit: 113 LAA Regt. RA (DLI) TA.
